RC Drilling to commence on Kiziltepe

18 May 2010
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

                      RC DRILLING TO COMMENCE ON KIZILTEPE

Ariana  Resources  plc  ("Ariana"  or  "the  Company"), the gold exploration and
development  company focused on  Turkey is pleased  to provide an  update on its
activities  at  the  Red  Rabbit  Project.   A Reverse Circulation (RC) resource
drilling  programme  is  to  commence  immediately  on the Banu and Derya veins.
 Initial results from the first phase of exploration drilling of vein extensions
and  geophysical  target  areas  defined  on  the  Kiziltepe  Prospect  are also
presented.

Highlights

  * 2,000m Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programme to commence


  * Positive  results  from  drill-testing  of  the  extensions of the Arzu vein
    system beneath cover


  * Intercepts include 4m @ 2.88 g/t Au equiv., 19m @ 1.44 g/t Au equiv.



Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"We  are pleased to announce the commencement of our planned Reverse Circulation
(RC)  drilling programme on the  Banu and Derya veins  at the Kiziltepe deposit.
 This  2,000m RC  programme  has  been  devised  to enable conversion of current
resources  on  these  veins  from  the  Inferred  to  Indicated  category.  This
programme  is being initiated  in advance of  formal Joint Venture completion to
ensure project development remains on schedule.

We  are also  pleased to  report initial  results of  the Rotary Air Blast (RAB)
drilling  programme which  tested probable  buried vein  extensions of  the Arzu
structure.   The RAB programme has now defined  buried veins in two out of three
target  areas and  we consider  these results  to be  highly significant for the
further growth of the Kiziltepe resource."

Drilling Programme

Approximately  2,000 m of  RC drilling  has been  planned on  the Banu and Derya
veins  at the Kiziltepe deposit.  This programme  is due to commence on 19th May
2010 and  has been designed to aid the  conversion of JORC Inferred resources to
Indicated status.  It is expected that this programme will run for approximately
two weeks, following which the results of this programme will be integrated with
a new mineral resource estimate which is already underway.

On  the 25th March 2010 the Company announced  that it had received results from
an extended geophysical programme at Kiziltepe.  Following the processing of all
available  geophysical  data  from  Kiziltepe,  an  initial exploration drilling
programme  was  devised.   Several  important  areas for drilling follow-up were
defined   and   three   preliminary  target  areas  were  selected  for  shallow
drill-testing,  with holes no more than 25m deep.  Two of these areas lay on the
probable extension of the Arzu vein system beneath cover.

A  Rotary Air  Blast (RAB)  drilling programme  was initiated  to test these two
areas  and the results  of the first  six drill holes  are presented in Table 1
below.

Table  1: RC  drill  hole  intersection  data  from  northern  end  of  the Arzu
structure.   The  Au  +  Au  equiv.  is  the  sum of the gold grade and the gold
equivalent  grade  of  silver  in  g/t  based  on  a  gold/silver price ratio of
approximately 50:1.

+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|         |       |        |        |      | Apparent | Gold | Silver |Au + Au |
|  Hole   |Easting|Northing|From (m)|To (m)|Width (m) | (Au  |(Ag g/t)| equiv. |
|         |       |        |        |      |          | g/t) |        | (g/t)  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB01A-10|607175 |4349395 |  2.00  | 6.00 |    4     | 2.37 | 25.40  |  2.88  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB02A-10|607179 |4349384 |  4.00  |10.00 |    6     | 1.32 | 15.40  |  1.63  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB02B-10|607180 |4349385 |  6.00  |12.00 |    6     | 1.28 | 21.23  |  1.71  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB03-10 |607130 |4349271 |  3.00  | 5.00 |    2     | 0.63 | 12.05  |  0.87  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB03-10 |607192 |4349256 | 14.00  |20.00 |    6     | 1.54 | 22.73  |  2.00  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB04A-10|607192 |4349256 |  8.00  |24.00 |    16    | 0.72 | 10.11  |  0.92  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+
|RAB04B-10|607191 |4349254 |  1.00  |20.00 |    19    | 1.20 | 12.14  |  1.44  |
+---------+-------+--------+--------+------+----------+------+--------+--------+

The  RAB drilling  programme was  cut short  due to  mechanical issues  with the
contract rig and the full programme was not implemented.  However, these initial
results  do point to the  presence of continuous gold  mineralisation in an area
with  poor  to  non-existent  vein  outcrop.   Although  the  magnitude  of gold
anomalism  detected  in  these  holes  is  typically  low  (approx. 1-2.5 g/t Au
equivalent),  the fact that gold mineralisation has been intercepted is a highly
significant result and proves the continuity of mineralisation beneath cover and
the integrity of the geophysical anomalies tested.

Contacts:

 Ariana Resources plc

 Michael Spriggs, Chairman            Tel: [phone]

 Kerim Sener, Managing Director



 Beaumont Cornish Limited             Tel: [phone]

 Roland Cornish



 Alexander David Securities Limited   Tel: [phone]

 Nick Bealer / David Scott



 Loeb Aron & Company Ltd              Tel: [phone]

 Peter Freeman / Frank Lucas



Editors' note:

Dr  Kerim  Sener,  BSc  (Hons),  MSc,  PhD,  is  the Managing Director of Ariana
Resources  plc.  A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology, he also
holds  a  Master's  degree  from  the  Royal  School of Mines (Imperial College,
London)  in Mineral Exploration  and a doctorate  from the University of Western
Australia.  He is a Fellow of The Geological Society of London and has worked in
geological  research and mineral  consultancy in Southern  Africa and Australia.
 He   has  read  and  approved  the  technical  disclosure  in  this  regulatory
announcement.
About Ariana Resources

Ariana   is  an  exploration  and  development  company  focused  on  epithermal
gold-silver  and  porphyry  copper-gold  deposits  in  Turkey.   The  Company is
exploring  a  portfolio  of  prospective  licences  selected on the basis of its
in-house  geological and remote-sensing  database, on its  own in western Turkey
and in Joint Venture with European Goldfields Limited in north-eastern Turkey.

The  Company's flagship assets are its  Sindirgi and Tavsan gold projects.  Both
projects  contain  a  series  of  prospects,  within  two  prolific  mineralised
districts  in the Western Anatolian Volcanic  and Extensional (WAVE) Province in
western  Turkey.  This Province hosts the largest operating gold mines in Turkey
and  remains highly prospective for new porphyry and epithermal deposits.  These
core  projects, which are  separated by a  distance of 75km, are presently being
assessed  as  to  their  economic  merits.   The total resource inventory of the
Company stands at 401,000 ounces of gold equivalent.

Loeb  Aron  &  Company  Ltd.  and  Alexander  David Securities Limited are joint
brokers  to the Company and Beaumont  Cornish Limited is the Company's Nominated
Adviser.

For further information on Ariana you are invited to visit the Company's website
atwww.arianaresources.com <

http://www.arianaresources.com/>.

Ends




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